For Your Own Good
by Misura
Summary: Absence does not, Kaiba knows, make the heart grow fonder. Absolutely not. [KaibaJoey]


For your own good

x

Warnings/notes: Kaiba/Joey, drabble-ish shortie.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. The song 'For Your Own Good' belongs to The Pet Shop Boys and is the first on their album 'Nightlife'. The quote at the beginning is presented purely as flavor-text.

written at 7th january 2005, by Misura

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_/For your own good,  
__call me tonight.  
__Don't you think I could  
__make a difference/_

x

It's the third day of the conference, and Kaiba is sure that he has never met a greater bunch of windbags and idiots than the people he's forced himself to socialize with the past afternoons and evenings -for the mornings are dedicated to 'important' things, like sleeping in late or listening to the point of view from the environmentalists.

Most of his time in New York thus far has been spent working on his laptop, in the blessedly quiet sanctuary of his hotel-room, or hunting for souvenirs with which to 'surprise' Mokuba upon his return to Japan. (Just to make sure he won't bring the wrong things, Mokuba has provided him with a detailed list of gifts that will be acceptable to make up for a week's absence.)

To say Kaiba isn't in the best of moods would be like saying that Mokuba can occasionally be a bit of a spoilt brat. The fact that he can't afford to insult his 'colleagues' by snapping at them only means that Kaiba has had to find other ways to vent his frustration, like wasting one dollar on a note-book and then writing down what, exactly, he thinks about today's speakers, and what he'd do to them if they were his employees. (He burns the note-book afterwards, of course.)

Also, Joey hasn't called him yet.

Obviously, that's not a big deal, in much the same way that Kaiba asking Joey to come and live with him, after making sure his father wouldn't grab for the nearest bottle as soon as Joey'd be gone, was of no particular importance.

Besides, Kaiba has told Joey five times not to call him on the day before he left, figuring that once wouldn't be enough, and that five might just be his lucky number. It is, he's explained to Joey, not considered to be in good taste to answer private calls in the middle of a business-meeting.

Somehow though, it annoys him. On the edge of his consciousness, there's a phone-call waiting to happen, because there's just no way that Joey's going to be an obedient little puppy and do as he's been told this time. (Kaiba has, in fact, made a point of including a few dog-jokes in his instructions to Joey, calculating that their effect will be that four hours after Kaiba's left, Joey will run to the phone to call him. Needless to say, Joey hasn't.)

Every time a phone rings -his, his neighbor's, that of the woman who's sipping tea at the other side of the room, it doesn't seem to matter- Kaiba feels the muscles in his hand twitch, feels how part of him wants to jump up and say that it's for him, from his ... whatever it is Joey is to him.

It distracts him, which, in a way, isn't that unwelcome a thing -or wouldn't have been too unwelcome a thing, had it not also been so annoying- considering he might have fallen asleep or been bored to death otherwise, but the fact that it gets to him that much, enough to break his concentration, bothers Kaiba to the point where he finds himself dialing the number of his traveling agency, to ask if maybe they can exchange his ticket for one that'll allow him to depart today, or tomorrow morning, instead of in another four days.

He catches himself in time, and puts down the receiver just before the first ring.

Next, he starts to wonder if he should call Mokuba, to ask if maybe something has happened to Joey, something bad enough to prevent him from using a phone. He assures himself that Mokuba'd have called him in such a case, and that he really is too tired right now to hear about Mokuba's latest crush or to have the importance of his bringing a green Chomby-plushie and not a blue one impressed upon him. He likes Mokuba, definitely, might even love him, inasfar loving is within his capability, but there are limits to what he'll put up with at three in the morning.

Briefly, he considers going to bed, to get some sleep. He doubts if he'll manage to relax long enough to succeed in falling asleep though, and he's frustrated enough already, without the added burden of insomnia. And who knows, Joey might call right at the moment when he's finally departed to the land of dreams, and then where would he be?

Either he wouldn't wake up, and miss the conversation that's become essential to his peace of mind, or he would answer the phone groggily and irritatedly. For some reason, Kaiba doesn't want that, doesn't want the first thing Joey hears when he's finally doing what Kaiba wants him to do to be a tired, angry voice. (He can't quite explain to himself why this is so, and it's really too early to investigate his own motivations right now.)

As he finds himself nodding off after half an hour of staring at the proposed budget for his R&D-department the next six months, without having found anything to complain about, he calls room-service to order a cup of coffee. The young woman on the other end of the line sounds disgustingly cheerful and alert, almost as if she means it when she tells him she's glad to have been of service to him.

Dawn arrives to find Kaiba sitting on the balcony -and about to move back indoors, since the noise of the morning-traffic is picking up- sipping black coffee. Joey hasn't called.

And so Kaiba does the only sensible thing that's left for him to do.

He calls Joey.

He listens to Joey yelling at him that he's an insensitive bastard for not having called earlier -does he have any idea how worried Joey has been? does Kaiba think that earning an extra billion is more important than his boyfriend, that he can't even spare one measly minute to make one lousy phone-call?

When Joey finally takes a pause to breathe, Kaiba hangs up and decides there's just enough time left for a short nap to refresh his mind before the next day of the conference.

OWARI


End file.
